Commotio is pleased to welcome back our director Matthew Berry for a concert celebrating composers not only for their works, but also for their legacies as teachers and proponents of the next generation.
In honour of the 150th anniversary of his birth, Commotio celebrates Vaughan Williams as composer and mentor, programming two lesser-known works alongside those he influenced. To celebrate this year's Jubilee, Commotio will sing Vaughan Williams's Silence and Music written for A Garland for the Queen, the cycle of part-songs compiled by ten British composers to mark the 1953 Coronation. Imogen Holst studied with Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music. She later became friends with Ursula Wood (Vaughan Williams's second wife who wrote the poem Silence and Music). Jane Joseph, who taught Imogen Holst, was a pupil of and later amanuensis to Imogen's father, Gustav, and was also encouraged in her composition by Vaughan Williams. After Joseph's untimely death at 34, Vaughan Williams conducted her Hymn for Whitsuntide at Kensington Competitive Music Festival in tribute. Rebecca Clarke's choral music, which lay unpublished for decades, has gained popularity since being published by Oxford University Press. Clarke and Vaughan Williams both studied composition under Charles Villiers Stanford (to whom Vaughan Williams dedicated Silence and Music).
On a more personal note, Commotio sings the works of two composers who have been influential to the choir's development. Matthew Berry studied with Ruth Byrchmore at the Royal Academy of Music. Peter Klatzow had a huge influence on the classical music of South Africa, both as composer and teacher. Commotio was pleased to record his music on their first CD in 2005. Klatzow, who died in December 2021, was a great supporter of the choir and an inspiration to their director.

Tickets available from https://www.commotio.org/store/p33/19%3A...